When Abby Chandlis writes a best selling novel under a fictitious name she convinces a former assassin to pose as the work's writer but the arrangement soon turns to terror as she cannot convince anyone that she is the true author.

A hate crime involving the murder of a legal scholar who had made his career by penning controversial works places defense attorney Paul Madriani in a media spotlight that compromises his investigation into an elusive witness within the cloistered confines of the Supreme Court.

In the course of a sting operation in California a judge is arrested for soliciting prostitution. Lawyer Paul Madriani, who hates the judge, takes the case out of human charity when every other lawyer refuses. As the case proceeds the young policewoman who snared the judge is slain. Police think the judge did it and now Madriani has a murder case on his hands. By the author of Undue Influence.

Defending a client accused of killing her father, attorney Paul Madriani is drawn into a treacherous conspiracy dating to World War II.